Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) (10 page)

The power at my disposal made my eyes roll with pure
ecstasy. I had always been so powerless and now, nobody
would be able to even contemplate usurping my authority.

I remembered thinking all of this as I left Xander in his
prison.
Now as I returned to make sure he was still there and
continue to gloat, something stirred deep inside of me at the
sight I was met with.
The prison was in ruins.
He had somehow broken out of a mountain. It wasn’t just
by weakening the supports, or digging a small tunnel – he
had smashed through it.
I wouldn’t let it happen again.
I obviously needed to find Xander as soon as possible and
searching the elements – with my powers – for the clues of
his disappearance, I realised that he was still –
“ARGH!”
I shattered the glass tree Xander had been standing in,
exploding it outwards with enough force to kill him. I was a
split second too late though and he landed on top of me,
dropping us both to the floor.
My back slammed against the ground and I scrabbled to
push Xander off me. He was physically stronger than me
and so the only choice I had was to use my power.
Manipulating the air in between us, I blasted a jet of wind
against his chest, sending him flying through the air.
Again I felt the breath knocked out of me, however, as the
air forced me back into the ground as well.
Before Xander could recover, I began to turn the earth
beneath him into quicksand, snaring him in place.
Surrounding him with another strong current of air to
distract him, I reached out with my power to turn the
quicksand to rock.
Before I could, however, I felt my mental consciousness
brush Xander’s.
In the brief pause of confusion, we both stiffened at what
had happened. Then the onslaught began.
Immediately he attacked me with his mind, attempting to
overtake my own thoughts. It was an odd feeling, having
another person’s mentality touch your own and I realised
that aside from telekinesis, he must’ve also had telepathy. I
felt his mind like a spear, charge into the deep recesses of my
brain.
I attempted to close off my thoughts while at the same
time, launching my own mental attack on him.
We stood there, locked in an invisible struggle, for what
felt like minutes. It was too unreal to describe what exactly
was going on. It was a cross between trying to break into
the other’s mind and take control as well as trying to block
everything else out so as to avoid getting distracted and
losing focus.
Neither of us had ever done this before, however, and
because of it, we were both hesitant to gain the upper hand,
for fear of what might happen.
Xander then did something unexpected. With his mind, he
launched a renewed attack on my consciousness, exploiting
what felt like a flaw in my mental armour. Before I could
knock him back, however, I felt myself rising in the air,
locked in place by what I knew was Xander’s power.
I watched him as he gritted his teeth, clearly in discomfort.
But he kept me high in the air, all the while attacking my
mind and without warning, dropped me.
In the split second it took me to summon the cushion of air
that would save my life, Xander broke the barrier of my
mind and suddenly I could feel his whole being inside of me.
Flailing to get him out, I did the only thing I knew I could
and watched as fire erupted around him.
He had used his telekinesis to deflect it – I had aimed to
burn him from the inside out - and then he sent a blast of
mental energy in my direction, knocking me senseless for a
moment. He still had access to my mind and again I
panicked.
I summoned a platform of rock out from beneath his feet,
attempting to send him flying skyward.
It worked partially; with him failing to entirely dodge what
he had heard in my mind was coming, but still managing to
bend his knees. His legs jarred into his torso and taking
advantage of the opportunity, I called on my full power to
attempt to burn him again.
For some strange reason, the jet of flame became a line of
water, which became a patter of rain and then fell to the
ground harmlessly. I felt Xander manipulating my own
power from within myself.
It was too much.
Calling on every bit of hatred I had, every bit of anger, of
jealously, of contempt, I attacked his presence in my mind.
His temporary flinch was all I needed and I battered his
body with yet another blast of air.
As he flailed, air-borne, I moved a piece of rock of through
the air - directly into his line of travel, and I grinned at the
crunch of the collision as Xander slammed against it.
Xander then slumped to the ground.
Not willing to let him get the upper hand, I pinned him to
the ground moving the body-sized piece of rock on top of
him. I watched it float silently through the air and then land
with a thud on top of his torso, listening to the strange
sound of him being deflated.
I relished the power as it coursed through me.
Chuckling, as an adult would laugh at a silly child, I
walked over to him, satisfied that he could not escape. I had
stretched to my limits in placing that rock on top of him and
there was no way, in his state, he would be able to remove it.
“Thought you could defeat me, did you?” I sneered at him.
He was dirt to me, not smart or famous – a waste of an
Academy position.
Xander attempted to make a sound, but a liquid gurgled at
the back of his throat – perhaps I should just kill him now, I
thought.
“It doesn’t matter that you escaped the first time anyway,” I
said. “You weren’t smart enough to run away and now look
where you are.”
I laughed again.
I turned as I heard something stir behind me. It almost
sounded like a person.
I caught a glimpse of a shadow and instantly launched a
hail of fist-sized rocks at the intruder.
A small groan and a series of thuds had alerted me to the
fact that I had hit my target. I walked a short distance
between the trees, searching for my prey.
Keeled over between a particularly colourful bunch of
mushrooms and a golden tree, was a smallish looking man
who I had never seen before.
A thought occurred to me and exploring the idea, I
reached out with my power, intending on brushing this
stranger’s consciousness. Between us I felt the frequency
and vibration of every living and non-living thing. The dirt
as it lived with an almost undetectable pulse, the small
insects that were hiding in the grass, the trees resonating
with high, clear amplitudes, the air itself, humming with
energy and then – a half-mind. That was the only
description there was for it.
This person’s mind was unlike Xander’s in a strange way. It
was as if it was intangible, like trying to catch smoke. He
slipped through my mental grasp and unexpectedly stood
up and dematerialised, fading to first a ghostly form of
himself and then nothing. I was left gazing at empty space.
I returned to Xander, anxious that something had
happened. However I was relieved to see him still pinned
down by the small boulder.
Looking around however, my feelings of unease stayed
with me. I needed to kill Xander and go, something wasn’t
right.
As if on cue, a giant cracking sound reached my ears and
almost as if I could sense the power being used – the hairs
on my body reacted as if touched by static.
I watched as the boulder lying across Xander cracked into
hundreds of smaller rocks, still easily the size of my head.
Barely reacting in time, I deflected the chunks of rock now
flying towards me as the entire structure exploded
outwards.
Clouds of dust billowed into the air and suddenly nervous
about Xander’s presence, I cleared the atmosphere with a
steady breeze.
The sound of trees crunching, rocks landing with
pronounced thuds and basically, the sounds of chaos,
reached my ears.
Watching the dust clear, the sight I saw made me nervous.
Standing in the middle of a crater littered with debris, with
a look of pure anger on his face, was Xander.
I blanched with fear.
His mental attack wasn’t even worth resisting – he brushed
aside my defences effortlessly as his mind probed mine and I
wondered where all this power had come from. His being
felt godlike in my head, so immense that I was barely a fly in
the midst of his sudden energy rush.
I heard his voice in my mind.
‘
Don’t even try to resist me. If you do, I might just decide to
kill you, or worse. I want your help, and you’re going to give
it to me. There is a far bigger threat out there and if you
think THIS is powerful, you will be crushed without a
batting of an eyelid.
‘Do you understand me?’
I nodded weakly, never having thought that any of these
people would be a real threat. However he sounded serious
and I knew that if he wanted to, he was in the position to
end my life. In any case, I needed to know more, needed to
buy more time.
“I’ll help you,” I said verbally.
I felt his presence withdraw from my mind.
What had I just agreed to do – and who had Xander
become?

Footprints, a good sign.
When I left Stefanie, it felt good. Bad, but good. No
longer did I have to ask her what she thought I should wear,
or what I should eat or tell her that she looked good a
thousand times before she would even think about leaving
her dorm.

Stefanie was too good for me, too nice for me and even
though I didn’t want to end it before I could kill her, Grace
had pushed me into a corner that was probably for the best.

Grace. What she had pulled in the meadow was too far –
sending an army after us?! It just made me contemplate her
powers; she had somehow blocked my teleportation.

Now my manipulation of her had backfired. I wouldn’t
commit to her even if she was the last person in Simulator –
Stefanie had been a very special circumstance herself – yet I
had to keep her hooked on the idea that I was into her. A
common enemy, Xander, united Grace and me and now we
were also going to have to take out Stefanie and Lily too.
B3ast, on the other hand, would be more easily convinced.
He adored Grace and she would surely use that to our
mutual advantage. 3 vs. 3 – Tech would be having a ball.

With my mind still full of questions, I surveyed the area
more closely. For the first time since arriving in Simulator, I
was out of the forest, or at least I thought I was.

For at least fifty meters in any direction, there were no trees
whatsoever. The grass was also gone, replaced instead by
yellowish sand and also for the first time in Simulator, I was
standing in front of a building.

I enjoyed the feeling of civilisation for a moment, not
having realised how much I’d missed the feeling of not
being out in the wilderness.

Soaking up the finer details, I came to the conclusion that
the building was odd. It looked out of place, contrasting
against the bright blue sky. It was made of very large greystone bricks, and it looked large enough to house a
significant number of people. It definitely did not look like a
part of the scenery and yet it was a sight to behold in and of
itself.

The aspiring real-estate agent inside of me rattled-off; built
from sturdy, long-life materials, a short-walk to some of the
world’s most unique scenery, architecture that will take you
back to medieval times, a spacious home fit for a king…

I chuckled softly to myself and felt my voice catch. It was
just a small cough, odd but like any normal cough –
probably just the air…

Feeling a little adventurous, I walked up a small set of
marble steps, arriving in front of the doors that were as
proportionately large as the rest of the building. These
themselves were made out of wood.

And then it clicked. I realised what made the building so
odd and yet at the same time, familiar. The marble steps,
wooden doors, stone walls, golden sand and blue sky all
created such a mix of colours that made for a really
interesting building, but had it all been monotone, it would
be identical to the Whitehouse, minus the dome. Odd.

Hedging my bets I raised my hand up to knock on one of
the doors, but instantly teleported myself away. I struggled
for a second to find a spot where I couldn’t be seen and
ended up teleporting myself to the corner of the building
and crouched down. Peering around, I could still see the
doors.

I held my breath as the giant door swung outwards, as I
knew it would, and watched as a figure emerged…
Grace.
I contemplated leaving before it was too late, but I needed
to find out more. Waiting, I watched as Grace began to
vibrate almost and I thought I could hear a buzzing in the
air around me.
Within seconds, Grace became a blur and then out of
nowhere, materialised a figure slumped on the ground, face
invisible behind a pair of hands.
Grace stopped vibrating and laughed. The figure climbed
to its feet – B3ast!
He bowed his head to Grace and I watched as he
disappeared once more.
“Holy…” I whispered.
Grace went back inside the building and the door closed
behind her. I attempted to process what had happened.
Suddenly I felt a cold hand on the back of my neck. Before
I could even think about teleporting, I found myself
paralysed, unable to even speak.
Whoosh.
The oddest sensation of being teleported against my will
came over me and I found myself standing in a poorly lit
room that was unfamiliar.
So far, however, I seemed to be safe.
“Victor,” a voice whispered strongly, as if struggling to
remain unheard.
I tried to see through the darkness and was aware of
someone standing in a shadowed portion of the room.
“Who’s there?” I called out, voice echoing off the walls.
A high-pitched laugh filled the room and my heart skipped
a beat.
“Victor, dear, who else would it be?”
A harsh white light radiating from several bare light-bulbs,
hanging from the roof, exposed the room and I realised it
wasn’t a room at all, but a hallway instead. The floor itself
was made out of the same grey stone that matched the
outside of the building and I realised I must’ve been on the
inside now.
Most worrying, however, was what was lining the hallway
– cells, with metal bars.
Grace began to walk towards me and I tried to back away.
For some reason I couldn’t teleport and then something
slammed against one of the cells’ bars.
A voice called out, “Victor!”
It was Stefanie, looking tired, bloody and extremely
unclean. The tone of her voice said it all, she was begging
for my help.
I didn’t respond.
When Grace reached me, she stood up on her tiptoes and
kissed me. Once on the forehead and twice on the lips.
Calculating quickly, I realised that Grace was in power
now. B3ast had probably been teleported into one of these
cells and for all I knew, Xander and Lily could also be
somewhere here.
Realising I was only still free because Grace thought my
love for her was still genuine, I knew that I had to continue
to play the part, or risk being trapped.
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered as seductively as I could.
She kissed me again and I heard someone cry out.
Looking up, my eyes met with Stefanie’s. The look on her
face was something that I could only describe as anguish.
I kissed Grace again.
“Oh stop it, you,” Grace responded playfully, while pushing
me away. “I have a job that needs doing, but at the moment
I’m a little weak. All this magic,” she gestured around to the
cells, “has made me tired…” Her fingers trailed down my
chest.
“Would you be willing to help me out?” She asked with
exaggerated sweetness. What choice did I have?
I dry-swallowed and cleared my throat.
“Of course,” I said.
Grace pulled herself away and smiled, “Oh I hoped you’d
agree.” She twirled back down the hall, “I need you to find
Xander for me…” she continued just as sweetly. “Pleeease.”
I briefly flicked my eyes to Stefanie again, who was
watching me with a mixed look of disgust and horror.
“No problem,” I smiled, satisfied at Stefanie’s confusion. I
only now realised how much I disliked Stef. She thought
she was better than everyone else – myself included, and so
now I was going to give her a legitimate reason to hate me,
because we both knew that she already did.
Grace was still retreating down the hall when she called
out to me, “You should be able to teleport now! Have a
good time… babe.”
I saw her wave her wand-like weapon and the lights went
out. I remembered offhandedly that that stick was the same
stick that had turned Lily’s cloak into maggots when we had
all entered Simulator. This was before anybody knew Grace
was a threat… it seemed so long ago. I flexed my arms out of
nervousness.
It was a safe assumption that somehow Grace had found a
way to use her wand to make the illusions real and that she
had some power that was strong enough to get at least two,
possibly more, competitors to bow down to her. Which
meant that she probably had two powers - her extremespeed
and something else. Either way, it was probably best not to
enquire.
I also briefly thought about why exactly Grace hadn’t
managed to already kill Xander – wasn’t that the point of
knocking Stefanie out in the first place?
I longed for the opportunity to go after Xander and now I
could, but Grace was a rising threat – I needed a plan to get
rid of her. If I left it too late, I’d become Stefanie’s roomie…
no thanks.
Mind buzzing with ideas, I closed my eyes and focussed
on bringing myself to Xander – wherever he was. I would
surprise him, knock him out and then bring him back.
Sometime around then I’d do the same to Grace, then kill
everyone who was already here and find whoever else
wasn’t.